Gerusalemme di San Vivaldo, an open air museum

Located in the very heart of Valdelsa, this is one of the ‘New Jerusalems’built in the 16th–17th centuries, mainly in central and northern Italy, to enable people to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre without actually going to Jerusalem.

The idea of creating this sacred site came from the Franciscans, who have always been the custodians of the sites associated with Jesus in the Holy Land. What makes San Vivaldo unique is that it faithfully reproduces the layout of the holy sites in Jerusalem.
The complex, built at the beginning of the 16th century in the Camporena woods consists of 18 chapels decorated with Scenes from the Life and Passion of Christ realized in polychrome terracotta by Benedetto Buglioni, Agnolo di Polo and the workshop of the Della Robbia's family.
The ceramics groups are inside the chapels, which are dotted around in the woods according to the true topography of Jerusalem. They build up a true tale of the passion of Christ, accessible to people without education as well as educated ones: the scenes are a sort of popular theatre with e powerful strength.

In the former barn of the convent are all the services: ticket office and bookshop.